3) Select one of the three pen type options to doodle on your photo, add an emoji using your keyboard, or swipe right to select a simple color filter.

Pro Tip: While it may seem like it at first glance, you’re not limited to the colors that appear at the bottom of the screen. To open up more advanced color options simply press and hold one of the colors to pull up this screen:

4) When you’re done, tap the checkmark icon to share.

Your Story will appear here, at the top of your friends’ feeds. It’ll also be visible on your profile page by tapping your profile picture.

6) Check out who saw your Story by swiping up when viewing the photo or video.

Want to keep your stuff private? You can adjust your privacy settings by going to your profile and selecting the “Settings” icon in the upper right. From there, you can chose to hide your Story from certain users, and restrict who can reply to your messages.

Wait, Isn’t That the Same Thing as Snapchat?

One only needs to look as far as the name to realize Stories is a Snapchat competitor. Similarities include photo/video functionality, a 24-hour window before the content disappears, basic filters, and the doodle tool.

However, there are a few advantages Snapchat has right out of the gate. For one, Instagram Stories is lacking Snapchat’s new “memories” feature, and there’s no screenshot notification. Not to mention, there are no stickers in Stories, and the filters leave something to be desired. And facial recognition — one of the most addictive Snapchat features — is noticeably absent. (If you can’t turn yourself into a bee, why bother?)

However, Instagram Stories does have one big advantage over Snapchat: As part of the larger Facebook/Instagram umbrella, they have less of a hurdle to jump in regards to adoption. Snapchat’s 150 million daily active users look like chump change compared toInstagram’s 300 million. Snapchat has much more ground to cover, while Instagram already has a captive audience.

Original article from Hubspot here: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/instagram-stories-guide#sm.001eqs3tx1acmfiizax2jmimy4kd3